(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a joint and/or bearing arrangement according to the preamble of claim 1 as well as a motor vehicle with one or several joint and/or bearing arrangements of this type, in particular in chassis and/or for steering components.
(2) Description of Related Art
In joint arrangements having a moveably supported pin, for example a pin having an enlarged head region which is supported for relative movement in a joint socket, the region between the head region and the socket subjected to friction must be well sealed against incursion of particles and/or humidity. It is known to surround a large area of the pin over in the axial direction with a sealing collar made of an elastic material such as to allow the sealing collar to conform to the movement of the pin. A sealing collar of this type can be flexibly deformed when constructed as a bellow with ring-shaped bulges and intermediate undercuts.
When such joint and/or bearing arrangements are installed in vehicles, particularly for use in forestry and/or all-terrain vehicles, for example in tractors, off-road vehicles, Unimogs, military vehicles and the like, the covers of the joint and/or bearing arrangements are frequently at risk of suffering external mechanical damage, for example by stones or branches, in particular with freestanding axles.
For protection, DE 102 49 073 A1 proposes to construct the sealing collars of several layers and to provide in addition to a softer inner layer a more stable outer layer. However, this solution reaches its limits with bellow-shaped covers that have large differences in diameter between the protruding bulges and the undercuts, in particular when the pin excursion should have a large angular range, because the outer layer then lacks sufficient elasticity.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,145,191 discloses to surround a sealing bellow having several ring-shaped folds with a bell-shaped outer cover spaced from the ring-shaped folds. However, this type of cover limits the excursion of the bellow. In addition, a greater pin excursion introduces severe wear due to friction at points between the outwardly protruding rings and the bell-shaped cover.